Work, a reality of secular life and a means of holiness

So for us, work is not only the natural means of providing for our financial needs and maintaining a natural, simple community of life with others. But it is also – and especially – the specific means of personal sanctification which our Father God has shown us, and the great, sanctifying apostolic instrument which God has placed in our hands, so that the order willed by him may shine forth in the whole of creation.

Work, which must accompany man’s life on earth,²² is for us at the same time (and to the highest degree, because in addition to the natural demands, there are others of a clearly supernatural order) the meeting-point of our will with the saving will of our heavenly Father.

Ordinary work sanctified is Opus Dei

I will tell you once again, my children: the Lord has called us so that, each remaining in our own state of life and in the exercise of our own profession or trade, we may all sanctify ourselves in our work, sanctify our work, and sanctify others through our work. This is how the human work we do can rightly be considered opus Dei, operatio Dei, work of God.

Secular and divine work

Our Lord bestows an immense value on his children’s intellectual and manual work. When everything is done in God’s presence, inspired by motives of love and service, with a priestly soul, then all a person’s actions acquire a deeply spiritual meaning, uniting our life to the source of all grace.

Supernaturalising the human

It is not about making the supernatural mission of Christ and his Church into something temporal; see how far all this is from a “clerical” spirit! It is quite the opposite: it is about supernaturalising people’s temporal activities. For we are fully convinced that all legitimate human work, however humble, small and insignificant it may seem, can always have a transcendent meaning: a reason of love, something that speaks of God and leads to God.